Cottleston Pie

Derek's bad UHaul experience this past September (U-Haul: The New Bane Of My Existence) was no suprise to me. I figure I'll document here and now my own impressions from experience. And it'll be nice if in a few years or so I find this dated and no longer accurate.

I remain amazed at the effectiveness for the UHaul brand: a clever name and good advertising. UHaul hasn't gone downhill. My observation is that they've been at the bottom of the hill for about 10 years. They'll generally charge you more than competitors for equivalent or worse product along with mediocre-at-the-very-best service. I've a bunch of experiences of my own as well as hearing those of others over the past decade. But UHaul still seems to be the first and favored call for most people. I've had good experiences with Hertz-Penske, Rider, and Budget. In my most recent experience with Budget (August 2004), the people that were supposed to return the truck I needed didn't. So, the Budget guys drove a bigger, available truck from the other side of the city and gave it to me at the local location at the same price as my reservation for the one-size smaller truck. Exactly the type of great service that UHaul wasn't going to do for Derek.